Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) A Maid Asleep (Slapend meisje) 1656–1657 Oil on canvas, 87.6 x 76.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The misbehavior of unsupervised maidservants was a common subject for seventeenth-century Dutch painters. Yet in his depiction of a…
Mantegna, Andrea (c.1431-1506) Orazione nell’orto (Agony in the Garden) c.1455–1456 Egg tempera on wood, 62.9 × 80 cm National Gallery, London Christ is shown in prayer. Aware that his disciple Judas had betrayed him, he left Jerusalem and took refuge in…
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter (c.1525-1569) The Dormition of the Virgin c.1564 Oil on panel, 67.7 x 85.3 x 12.6 cm Upton House and Gardens, England This ‘grisaille’, or grey monochrome painting, shows the death of the Virgin, attended by the…
Caravaggio (1571-1610) Amorino dormiente (Sleeping Cupid) 1608 Oil on canvas, 72 x 105 cm Galleria Palatina, Firenze In classical antiquity Cupid, the god of love, was always depicted as a young boy armed with bow and arrows. Such images were known as…
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (1825-1905) La Vierge aux anges (The Virgin with Angels / Song of the Angels) 1881 Oil on canvas, 213.4 x 152.4 cm Forest Lawn Museum, Glendale